How To Find A Therapist To Suit Your Needs

October 12, 1985|By Sally Squires, Washington Post

Here are some ways to find the right therapist:

-- Get recommendations from friends or relatives who have been or are going through therapy.

-- Check with physicians, lawyers and local professional societies. Most organizations of mental-health professionals -- such as the local psychiatric and psychological societies and area chapters of social workers and family therapists -- have directories and referral lists of members. Since there are requirements for membership, finding a therapist through one of these associations guarantees a certain minimum level of education and training.

-- Contact an area hospital or university with a psychiatry or psychology department and request an evaluation by a staff member. This person may help you target the problems and issues you might need to work on, guide you to the type of therapy that could be best and, possibly, offer the names of several psychotherapists who specialize in the type of treatment needed.

-- Avoid picking a therapist out of the telephone book, a process New Jersey clinical psychologist Richard Samuels calls the ''worst way to find a psychotherapist.'' The major criteria crucial to choosing a therapist are credentials and rapport.